article thumbnail

The Parable of the Goat Mites

10,000 Birds

And so, when Salvador Ramirez left, there were feral goats on the island of San Clemente, the southernmost of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. And so, most had been neutered, adopted out to soft-hearted landowners as odd pets, conversation pieces.

Goats 162
article thumbnail

When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

By way of an example take the Western Gulls that I studied on the Farallon Islands in California. Animal rights groups sued to prevent poison being used to kill the rabbits, and even told a mediator that they would rather every reptile on the island die than a single rabbit be killed.